et non sapientior

…”If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture,” Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.
His colleagues laughed approvingly. “This is Afghanistan, not America,” Qayum said.

Three islanders from Lesbos … have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.
One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, “insults the identity” of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.
“My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian,” said Dimitris Lambrou. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” he said.
[Lambrou and two women] are seeking to have the group barred from using “lesbian” in its name ….
Lambrou said the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades. “But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years,” said Lambrou, who publishes a small magazine on ancient Greek religion and technology that frequently criticizes the Christian Church….

Of course your sister can say she’s a lesbian!
Things get interesting when you say it though, Dimitris…
Good thing we have lawyers in the EU to straighten this all out for us.

About cheating, about drugs, about wild parties. But every now and then these kids do something that is so wonderful you just, well, hell, I know I’ve got tears in my eyes right now.
Picture this: women’s college softball. Your team is playing a doubleheader against your main opponent in your league, late in the season, both of you locked in a tight race for the title…

Last weekend’s softball series between Western Oregon and Central Washington was supposed to be a battle between two teams trying to win a conference championship.
…And after WOU won the first game 8-1, Central Washington was determined to salvage a split.
In the second inning of a scoreless game two, 5-foot-2 WOU senior reserve Sara Tucholsky, batting just .088 (3 for 34) on the season, stepped to the plate.
The Forest Grove-native had never hit a home run in her four-year career, so when she hit the second offering she saw from Wildcats pitcher Katriina Reime over the center field fence, Tucholsky and her teammates and coaches went nuts.
“Finally, I was thinking, after all that hard work I finally hit one. It was my goal all year,” said Tucholsky.
“The ball was a shot,” WOU head coach Pam Knox said. “Our dugout erupted, and I’m jumping around like a little kid.”
Knox, the Wolves’ third base coach, was high-fiving the other two players as they jogged home, but Tucholsky wasn’t following behind.
“I thought, ‘Where’s Sara?,’ ” Knox said.
Tucholsky, running to first base and caught up in her own exuberance, watched the ball sail over the fence and missed the bag “by five feet,” she said.
Recognizing her error, she quickly turned back to touch the base and then … then there was nothing but pain.
It was her right knee. It had given out.

And therein lies the problem. Her two teammates ahead of her on the basepath had already crossed home and taken themselves out of play. If any of her teammates or coaches touched her her home run wouldn’t count.

Umpires confirmed that the only option available under the rules was to replace Tucholsky at first base with a pinch runner and have the hit recorded as a two-run single instead of a three-run home run. Any assistance from coaches or trainers while she was an active runner would result in an out. So without any choice, Knox prepared to make the substitution, taking both the run and the memory from Tucholsky.

And that’s when Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace stepped up to the plate.

“And right then,” Knox said, “I heard, ‘Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?'”
The voice belonged to Holtman, a four-year starter who owns just about every major offensive record there is to claim in Central Washington’s record book. She also is staring down a pair of knee surgeries as soon as the season ends. Her knees ache after every game, but having already used a redshirt season earlier in her career, and ready to move on to graduate school and coaching at Central, she put the operations on hold so as to avoid missing any of her final season. Now, with her own opportunity for a first postseason appearance very much hinging on the outcome of the game — her final game at home — she stepped up to help a player she knew only as an opponent for four years.
“Honestly, it’s one of those things that I hope anyone would do it for me,” Holtman said. “She hit the ball over her fence. She’s a senior; it’s her last year. … I don’t know, it’s just one of those things I guess that maybe because compared to everyone on the field at the time, I had been playing longer and knew we could touch her, it was my idea first. But I think anyone who knew that we could touch her would have offered to do it, just because it’s the right thing to do. She was obviously in agony.”
Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky’s left foot could secure her passage onward.

I know this word is over used these days, but all I can say as I wipe the tears away is how awesome is that?

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) — Thirteen members of a high school lacrosse team have been disciplined for dropping their pants to send a prom invitation from one player to a girl.
The lacrosse players at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan displayed the question, “Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No?” on their bottoms, which they bared during a junior varsity game last Thursday.
Officials suspended 13 players for an undetermined number of games and ordered them to perform 20 hours of community service. They also were suspended from school for one day.
The girl accepted the prom invitation.

When nature calls for Phydeaux, it’s good to know that someone is On Doody

Enter Lee Bowling, owner of “On Doody.” For a fee, Bowling and his staff will pick up what your dog leaves behind.
Bowling bought the business from a friend in 2005.
“We grew 70 percent the first year,” he said.
Bowling and his staff now pick up poop for almost 300 customers.
“People these days, they either don’t have time to do it, or honestly, they just don’t want to do it,” he said.

…The regional insurance company Pemco Insurance knows all this, and it’s created a brilliant ad campaign around it.[Ed: hit ‘View the Ads’] Using the tagline “We’re a lot like you,” Pemco manages to poke fun at residents of the Pacific Northwest without offending us. (Of course, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know most of us would be far too passive-aggressive to say anything even if we were offended).
People who don’t live in Seattle or its environs may not get all of the company’s spot-on “Northwest profiles.” But chances are anyone can laugh at “The Super-Long Coffee Orderer,” “Gluten-Free-No-Refined-Sugar Lady,” “Accidental Tech Millionaire” and, most notably, “Confused East Coast Transplant.”
Also, you don’t have to live in the Northwest to see your friends — or yourself — in “Your Friend Who Won’t Stop Talking About Real Estate,” “Art Gallery Crawler” and “Walla Walla Wine Wine Woman Woman.”

Well, not me. I’m from Florida.
They probably mean Walla Walla Real Real JeffS JeffS. Come to think of it, I did see…

T. Boone Pickens talking to Maria Bartiromo a few minutes ago. Gobs of great information delivered in that spare, to-the-point way he has.
Oil’s staying at at least $100pb due to a static 85 million bpd production, but ever increasing demand. It may drop a tad below, but not far. No place here to get any more, since ANWAR’s off the table as well as western government lands. (“Got a Democrat Congress.” ::snort::) So he’s long on oil.
How do we get out of it? “Natural gas. Best thing we have going for us. Plenty of supply and home grown.” He suggests taking NG out of power production and switching it to transportation, using nuclear, clean coal and wind generation to take up the slack. Boone’s already put his money where his mouth is on the NGV idea and is getting ready to announce his financing ~ with no partners ~ of the largest wind farm operation to date (4000 megawatts), which is 6 times bigger than anything now.
Biggest surprise? In her intro, Bartiromo said, “Author of ‘The First Billion is the Hardest'” and the 80 year old pointed out he didn’t have his first billion made until he hit 70.
There’s hope, then, if I can stay away from QVC long enough.

…During what a source described as a “heated” phone call yesterday, Sharpton told Obama he was disappointed with the Illinois senator’s words on Friday, when Obama said “resorting to violence to express displeasure” was “completely unacceptable and counterproductive.”

“[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown,” said a source.

“How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?“

Such a candidate asks them to “DEAL WITH IT”. That’s what happens in a democracy. Perceived injustices also have other avenues of remedy, like a federal prosecution ~ ask the Rodney King cops ~ or civil court action ~ ask OJ Simpson. Not perfect, but something, right? There are no victors in this match. One of my favorite quotes from a favorite movie covers it nicely.

You don’t get to advocate turning the world upside down, destroy other people’s property, livliehood or lives because it didn’t play out how you knew it would. Think MoToon, Rev Al. Set that match with TV cameras rolling and whaddaya got? Something quickly way out of your control, Master Agitator.
Why not try a novel concept ~ tell black kids to stay in school. Make learning as important as thinking you’ll be the next rap star or thug football player or basketball star. Appreciate those in your community who have worked hard to rise to the top, instead of deriding them as “Uncle Toms” or “Condiskeezas”. Make those people the idols of your youth, instead of the brother who has 8 children by 6 different women. Encourage African American youth to be BEHIND the bench, instead of in front of it. There’s no reason on earth why they can’t do it. There’s no reason on the face of God’s earth WHY there’s not a great multitude already in those positions. No reason other than the sweet race-baiting ride you and your Rev Wright/Rev Jesse pals’ve got going. I guess if you show people they’re not near as needy as you’ve led them to believe they are, then your gravy train of entitlement and rage goes away, doesn’t it?
Everything doesn’t always go your way, or the way you think is right, but life is like that.
How you handle it makes you a man.
And a role model.

Police are investigating claims by AC Milan striker Ronaldo that a transvestite prostitute sought to extort money from him following an altercation at a Rio de Janeiro motel.
Police inspector Carlos Augusto Nogueira said that Ronaldo, who is recuperating from a knee injury in his homeland, contracted the services of three transvestites – believing them to be women – and took them to a motel.
However, Ronaldo is then said to have tried to get out of the situation after one of the men went in search of drugs.

It could’ve been a typical spat between grocery store customer and manager, with the customer announcing he planned to take his business elsewhere. But then the customer drew his gun. The store manager drew his and so did the assistant manager.

If you read the whole thing, you’ll see the gun toting store personnel…never fire. Amazing what a couple barrels pointing your way can accomplish all on their own.
Schmaybe it stands for “I Got Arms“? Or…

One of Australia’s most senior conservative politicians broke down today as he tearfully admitted sniffing the chair of a female colleague shortly after she vacated it.
Troy Buswell, the leader of the opposition Liberal Party in Western Australia, was under intense pressure to resign over the incident, which happened in 2005.
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He dismissed allegations on 13 different occasions that he had sniffed the seat, before finally admitting yesterday that it had in fact taken place.
“All I can confirm is that the events described in the paper [The West Australian] by the former female staffer are accurate,” he said.
…The emergence of the chair-sniffing incident had placed a strain on his marriage, he conceded.

I would say he’s got some deep-seated issues. Sofa he hasn’t had to resign…
And what does it tell you about the state of the party’s leadership when

Other members of the Liberal party said privately they were disgusted by the whole episode, but would not challenge Mr Buswell as leader of the Liberals because there was no better candidate.

ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Police said a couple brawled with one another, then members of another wedding party, just hours after they repeated their vows and were headed to a room at the Holiday Inn in Ross Township.
The fight between dentist David W. Wielechowksi, 32, of Shaler, and his bride, Christa Vattimo, 25, began as the couple were about to enter their room at the hotel on McKnight Road on Saturday night, according to police.
The dentist “used a karate-style kick with his leg to kick Christa, knocking her to the floor,” the criminal complaint said.
Two guests of another wedding heard the bride’s screams and rushed over to help her. But when they restrained Wielechowksi, his bride began attacking her rescuers, police said.
The fight traveled from a hallway to an elevator then into the hotel lobby where, police said, the couple threw metal planters containing live plants into an elevator at the men who tried to break up the fight.

For some reason the police seem to think intoxication may have been a factor.
There’s a reality show in their future.

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.
The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

The burdens that are relevant to the issue before us are those imposed on persons who are eligible to vote but do not possess a current photo identification that complies with the requirements of SEA 483.16 The fact that most voters already possess a valid driver’s license, or some other form of acceptable identification, would not save the statute under our reasoning in Harper, if the State required voters to pay a tax or a fee to obtain a new photo identification. But just as other States provide free voter registration cards, the photo identification cards issued by Indiana’s BMV are also free. For most voters who need them, the inconvenience of making a trip to the BMV, gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote, or even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.

This is an important and needed ruling (and surely Justice Stephens’ experience with the Daley Machine influenced him here). Unfortunately we need to have IDs for voting. It’s too easy for fraud to occur, and especially with a very closely split electorate that has to be avoided.

SUFFOLK, VA. — The National Weather Service confirms three tornadoes touched down in central and southeastern Virginia Monday. Associated Press reports authorities say at least 200 people suffered injuries throughout the Commonwealth.
Meteorologist Bryan Jackson of the National Weather Service says the twisters hit Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick County on Monday afternoon. He described Suffolk’s as a “major tornado.”

Barbaric ‘honour killings’ become the weapon to subjugate women in IraqMurder of a girl who became infatuated with a British soldier highlights a disturbing new trend
At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.
The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone.

I lost my mind over this at the very beginning, but women’s rights wound up thrown under the Mohammedan bus in the rush to get a deal ~ ANY deal ~ done constitution-wise…

…”The draft aborts the democratic process Iraqis hoped for and is a big victory for political Islam,” said writer Adel Abdel-Amir. “Islamic law, not the people, has become the source of authority.“..
…Language guaranteeing “rights and freedoms” is subordinate to the primary position given to Islam, opponents say….
…The prominent women’s rights campaigner denounced wording that grants each religious sect the right to run its own family courts — apparently doing away with previous civil codes — as an open door to further Islamicise the legal system…
…Souhail said the United States, a crucial backstage player keen for a deal that meets U.S.-backed deadlines, had let the Shi’ite Islamists and Kurds in government do as they wish.
“We have received news that we were not backed by our friends including the Americans. They left the Islamists to come to an agreement with the Kurds,” she said.

Damn. Their. Eyes.
And DAMN the worthless feminists in this great country, who haven’t the moral fiber to speak up for our sisters around the world, who suffer unspeakable degradation, are treated so appallingly at the hands of these animals in the name of Allah. Elitest, pretentious, entitled c-words. DAMN. Their. Eyes.
I HATE slavery, which is what the Islam practiced by these inhuman beastmasters is for the women of their ugly, ignorant, foetid, bloodsoaked male bondage club. Why isn’t Reverend Wright out there saying “God DAMN the Islamic male ANIMAL” when he’s on his litany of injustices rant? Where’s the Vanity Fair exposé on the threats Islamic women in the “civilized” world (Britain, Denmark…?) face, less mind the bestial practices in everyday life for those behind the sharia curtain?
Where’s the ribbon for those women?
And these United States colluded to deprive the women of Iraq of the FREEDOM they promised ALL its people.
DAMN. GEORGE. BUSH’s. EYESLIES.
I am so deeply ashamed.

Iran takes new shot at Barbie, calling US doll ‘destructive’
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the “destructive” cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.
In the latest salvo in a more than decade-old government campaign against Barbie, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a “danger” that need to be stopped.

…but a reading, writing, voting, driving, all American Second Amendment babe…
…gets their caftans fearfully flapping. Barbie will infiltrate the darkness, never fear.
She’s a freedom force to be reckoned with.
A warm Swill Salute to Supertechnogirl for her artistic masterpieces (and one great article).

I’ll admit it from the get-go: I am from rural New Jersey. I grew up in Sussex County. We had a party-line phone until the late 70s. Our power used to go off every year when the ski slopes would fire up the snow makers. We got 2 TV channels well and 5 only so-so. We generated a goodly percentage of our heat in the winter from wood we had cut the summer before. A lot of roads in town were unpaved through the 70s.
And for many years we depended on the State Troopers for our police protection, as the towns near us did not have police departments (and our town’s only started in 1975). Now, obviously, we didn’t need much of a police force, as crime was not a huge issue. Were we nicer, better people then? Heck no. However everyone, and I mean every single house, was armed. I firmly believe that the knowledge that every single homeowner had a loaded shotgun that they were used to using in reach had an amazing effect on the burglary rate.
Sussex was, and still is, a conservative outcast in the sea of Jersey politics, and as such received very little back from Trenton for the tax money that was sent in. And mostly that was alright with folks, as all we ever really wanted from the State Government was that the Troopers, the State Troopers, would show up within 20 minutes or so of our calling them. And, God bless ’em, they always did.
And now Corzine wants to take even that away

TRENTON — New Jersey State Police have patrolled the state’s rural areas for 87 years at no extra cost to smaller towns that never created police departments.
In fact, the law that created the state police agency stated it would “primarily” be used to protect rural areas.
But times have changed, and free rural New Jersey state police patrols may soon end.
As the state grapples with chronic state budget woes, Gov. Corzine has proposed requiring municipalities that get free state police patrols to pay a quarter of the estimated patrol cost to raise $20.5 million for the cash-strapped state.

Rather than do something silly like, say, cut waste in Trenton or perhaps not add thousands of people to the state payroll our glorious bloated bureaucracy has instead chosen to charge people for what they already pay for. It’s brilliant economics.

“There is no plan afoot to remove state police protection from any town now utilizing it,”
(state Attorney General Anne Milgram) said. “The plan is simply to require reimbursement for that coverage, which is only fair.”

This is crap. The towns already pay for the coverage. The State Police was created to patrol rural areas and they are funded by the taxes everyone pays.
This is just another salvo in Corzine’s war on small towns.
Why am I feeling all bitter and clingy?

The Supreme Court had every right to overturn the popular vote and choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat Islamic Terrorism, according to Howard Dean, chairman of the US Democratic National Committee.

This from the Party of the People.
Oops, my bad, what he really said was

The Democratic party’s “superdelegates” have every right to overturn the popular vote and choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat John McCain in a general election, according to Howard Dean, chairman of the US Democratic National Committee.

…Obama spox Bill Burton writes to say, “We want to take Senator McCain at his word that he wants to run a respectful campaign, but that is becoming increasingly difficult when he continually tries to use the politics of association and makes claims he knows not to be true to advance his campaign.

So now you’re not supposed to be judged or even queried about your associates? I guess because we’re all haterhaters anyway, or so says Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe. I heard it on World News Tonight in relation to whites who said race was a factor (I believe they said it was a whopping 13%) and have been scrabbling to get the transcripts/webcast copy, but trust HotAir to beat me to it.

I mean the vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain’s camp already.